title: [Clinical characteristics and geriatric evaluation of elderly patients with pneumonia in a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina].
abstract: In order to determine the clinical and geriatric characteristics of elderly adults with pneumonia in a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a cross-sectional study was carried out in 2010, included 66 patients hospitalized for pneumonia. The mean age of the study subjects was 82, 54.5% of whom were men. 47.0% of the hospitalizations were due to community-acquired pneumonia. As for the functional evaluation, 31.8% showed dependence in performing basic activities of daily living and 69.4% presented dependence in instrumental activities of daily living. The most frequent clinical characteristics observed were fever, cough, dyspnea and expectoration. The causative agent of pneumonia was identified in 34.8% of the cases, 18 of which were bacterial (27.2%) and 5 viral (7.5%). The crude mortality rate was 28.8%, but was close to 50% in those patients having confusional syndrome. We conclude that pneumonia in elderly patients has special characteristics, which can be observed with a proper diagnostic and geriatric evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Regueiro
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Homar
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ovejero
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pieroni
authors.forename: Romina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Basilico
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001118:Argentina; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D014504:Urban Health